OPINIONISTA: South Africa’s journey to the right to know By Guy Berger
South Africa has come a long way from apartheid-era secrecy to a constitutional democracy rooted in transparent government and the right to know.
Mbeki was correct: freedom of information law is key if we want to stop civil servants from using secrecy to foot-drag delivery or capture state power for corruption. Mbeki’s idea contrasted sharply with apartheid’s control of information by using the power of a closed state. The challenge for Mbeki was to upturn the tables. What would have been hidden in earlier times should now become open to scrutiny.
Overall, the result today is that the South African state remains accountable. The people still enjoy a right to see inside the machine. These Information Commissioners also often work to protect personal information, which has become a critical issue due to surveillance, data breaches, artificial intelligence, and in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its impact on the elections in the United States.
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